Semporna -- not so "perfect" afterall

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Semporna essentially means "perfect" in Malay. This tiny fishing town is about 5-6 hours south of Sandakan by bus. I find this place really intriguing as everyone seemed to stare at me even tho I'm a local...as in like M'sian. I was walking around town earlier and people were shouting for my attention, honking at me if they're in a car, or (the kids..) just following me around trying to peep into my camera. I feel more foreign here than I did in Thailand/Indochina.

After wandering around the town for 15 min, I realised I've pretty much covered all the "must-sees". Then, I decided to be an intruder and ventured into the water village along the waterfront. To be honest, the village on stilts was filthy and probably dangerous as well if you head into the Bangau area. I was lucky to bump into this nice lady and started bombarding her with all sorts of questions. According to her, more and more foreigners (from the Philippines n Pakistan) who arrived here illegally are moving into the water village. The Philippinos are notorious for abusing drugs like heroin n syabu. Occasionally the cops would drop by and "say hello" but they're getting too rampant. So nice gal like me should stay away from the Bangau area (...dats what she said :) Bummer....I was actually looking forward to see the native Bajau people and their liveaboard dinghy... which happens to be around that area.

Had a late lunch at a chinese coffee shop, CCKFC (another classic example of trademark infringement), which has fried chicken as its specialty (obviously...!!) Coincidentally, the coffee shop's chinese name is exactly the same as my surname....which is very rare. I'm probably even related to the owner!! As I was indulging in a dish of mee goreng, waitresses began gathering around me and staring at me as I ate. It was quite intimidating. Finally one of them started asking me questions. Phew! All they wanted was just a chat. All of a sudden, it got weird again when a waitress asked for my number. Like no way am I gonna give away my number to a stranger! (well...unless the stranger is a carbon copy of Keanu Reeves) I came up with a lie, said dat I didn't have a mobile, and kept praying dat the mobile in my pocket wouldn't ring while I was there.

A word of advice, anyone in Semporna who's after a PC with USB port, head straight to the internet cafe at the jetty area near Seafest. I spent ages walking around town, asking every single internet cafe, and managed to find only ONE such PC with USB at Lee's Guesthouse (or something). Had to wait another 30min till it was my turn to use it!

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